This invention relates to a method for preparing a document, comprising the steps of generating digital document data for the document, containing an information content and finishing instructions, other than the information content, for finishing the document, feeding the document data to an apparatus for preparing and finishing documents, and preparing and finishing the document in accordance with the document data, whereby the information content is provided on an information carrier.
Such a method is described in European patent application with publication number 0628357. It discloses the linking of the finishing instructions in digital form to digital data representing a text of a document, for instance by determining the finishing instructions for a document on the basis of portions of the contents of that document (such as name-address-residence, a customer code or a post code) which refer to predetermined finishing instructions. These finishing instructions are stored as part of a separate file to be used for several documents.
Although for special applications the finishing instructions associated with a document can thus be partly determined by the information content of that document as such, it is generally laborious to generate finishing instructions again and again for each document or each series of documents and also, in each instance this entails the risk of mistakes regardless of whether documents are involved that are to be produced as a single item or in small or large numbers. This applies in particular if the document is a document composed of several components, which moreover is to be packaged. In particular if the number of options from which finishing instructions are to be selected is very large, for instance because the physical production of documents is contracted out for logistic reasons or reasons of production economy, it is laborious to determine finishing instructions again and again for each order or for each document.
For that matter, in practice it is customary that the finishing instructions for the preparation of documents are set as job instructions applying to a series of documents that are being prepared within the framework of that job. This applies especially to the preparation of items to be mailed, where the documents are packaged in envelopes. This method is even more laborious, because even in the preparation of a document or a number of documents of a type which has been prepared before, all settings must be set again, at any rate, must be checked. This applies in particular if the further documents are to be prepared in an apparatus with different options.
The object of the invention is to provide a method which enables the determination of finishing instructions for the preparation of documents to be carried out more efficiently and with less risk of mistakes.
According to the present application, this object is realized by composing the document from at least two sections each divided into an information content and at least one finishing code which represents at least one finishing setting, and determining the finishing instructions for preparing the document in accordance with the finishing codes associated with the sections.
This provides the possibility, in generating a new document, of re-using a section, such as part of a text, a picture or a printing on an enclosure document, if desired with a wholly or partly modified information content, including the finishing setting selected for that section, in the form of the finishing code or codes of that section, so that at least a basis for the finishing instructions is automatically carried along. This eliminates the necessity of determining, or at least checking, again and again a substantial part of the finishing instructions of documents.
In maintaining certain procedural measures, such as a house style, the possibility is offered of preventing selected finishing settings, such as the choice from different kinds of letter paper, from being modified by unauthorized persons.
A further advantage is that in the repetitive preparation and/or preparation at distributed points of documents of a certain kind with different limitations regarding finishing options, it is possible to automatically achieve a flexible matching of, on the one hand, the finishing requirements imposed by certain parts of that document or that kind of documents and, on the other, the finishing options.
It is noted that a document can be a printed document as well as an information carrier on which information is stored in a different form. It is further noted that in this context xe2x80x98documentxe2x80x99, is understood to be a document in a broad sense, i.e. the totality of items, possibly including an envelope, which it is desired to send as an assembly to an addressee.
Hereinafter the invention as well as further elaborations and advantages thereof will be further explained and elucidated. on the basis of an exemplary embodiment presently preferred most and some alternative possibilities, with reference to the drawings.